Dianne Buswell and Chris McCausland won Strictly Come Dancing last night, and the Strictly pro has explained how she taught her partner how to dance.
Chris, 47, became the first blind winner of the BBC competition on December 14 after three months of hard work and rehearsing.
Fans were amazed by his dancing abilities during the show, and particularly impressed with Dianne who was able to teach Chris to dance at a high level.
In an interview on the podcast Off The Telly with Joanna Page and Natalie Cassidy, the Strictly professional explained that she was on her hands and knees in order to teach Chris without visual aids.
‘Dancing for me is, I would teach 80% visually all the time. I learn visually when I’m dancing. So for me, even just thinking about, “Oh my gosh so I can’t visually teach him, and the way I learn is visuals.” So my brain was going “Oh god I hope I can do this,”‘ she said.
‘But we found other ways,’ Dianne added. ‘He’s really good with musicality so hearing the steps on the floor he gets an understanding of rhythm number one.
‘It comes down to literally, I get down on my hands and knees, he puts his hand on my head for balance so he’s pressing down on my head whilst I’m moving his feet.’
‘Also Chris gets down on his hands and knees, and feels what my feet are doing. I try and explain everything which I’ve never ever done before. It feels like I’m playing twister sometimes I’m like “right leg forwards.”‘
‘My brain is working overtime,’ she said. Dianne explained that the pasodoble was a particularly challenging dance for them to master because of the ‘weird positions’ that were required, with Chris revealing he thought some of the dance moves were a joke at first.
‘People probably don’t realise that half of our week is just explaining to chris the directions that we are going in,’ she continued.
‘Because when you’re dancing it’s moving so fast that actually, in hindsight he doesn’t really know where we are in the room. He’s just going off what maybe I’ve said in certain positions that we stop in.’
She said it was all down to complete ‘trust’ and Chris just has to remember where they are in the room based on discussions in rehearsal.
Fans flooded to social media to praise Dianne and her impressive ability to teach Chris.
‘I think this is the most in-depth I’ve heard Dianne talk and explain how she has been teaching Chris to dance these past 12 weeks and it absolutely BLOWS my mind how they have been able to produce the level of dances they have by learning/ teaching like this! It’s insane!’ said Carlee3091 on X.
‘They’re remarkable. How they managed TWO dances last week is beyond me. Also, I hadn’t really considered that Chris is memorising every single turn angle in those dances,’ said ettwitcher.
‘Be amazing if they can cobble together a documentary following their progress and how Dianne has achieved what they even said ‘may not have been possible’…would be fascinating,’ said linzirob.
When asked what it means to win, Chris said: ‘It’s astonishing. I don’t know what to say.
‘I honestly thought I could go out in the first week or two, I know nobody went out on week one but I thought I could,’ he joked.
Turning to his partner Dianne, Chris continued: ‘She’s got so much out of me. She deserves this so much. She’s positivity, and she’s one of the easiest people to be funny with.
‘Unless she changes her number she’s stuck with me.
‘This is for her, and for everyone who was told they couldn’t do something. With opportunity, support and determination anything can happen.’
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